Buttery, soft, and made completely from scratch, this easy homemade biscuit recipe deserves a permanent place in your recipe repertoire. This recipe is made with all butter, no shortening!
With just 6 ingredients that I bet you already have on hand, these homemade biscuits are so simple to make and I’ve included plenty of tips (and a video!) to make sure you end up with perfect biscuits every single time.
Two reasons I’m super excited to share this homemade biscuit recipe with you today:
One: because homemade biscuits are delicious (obviously) and they’re so easy to make. So many people buy the canned version without realizing that they already have all of the ingredients to make them from scratch in their pantry.
The taste of a pre-made biscuit doesn’t hold a candle to a homemade biscuit. Not. even. close. Preservatives and artificial flavors, you aren’t welcome here.
Two: because ever since I started working on this biscuit recipe a few weeks ago, “Mind Your Own Biscuits” by Kacey Musgraves has been stuck in my head and I’ve been singing it off-key relentlessly.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kacey Musgraves and her music, but every time I start singing my dog starts actually crying. It’s sad and hilarious, and if I wasn’t so embarrassed by my terrible singing voice I would have shared a video of it by now. Hopefully, by publishing this recipe I’ll release myself from the endless refrain and the animal abuse will finally stop.
But let’s talk more about the first reason.
Homemade biscuits call for just six ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, and milk. And then more butter once they’re finished baking because of course we need more butter.
I mentioned that these biscuits are easy so do not be alarmed by all the tips that I have for you below. These biscuits are easy, but technique matters and I want to arm you with all the information that you need so that you can make these easily and have them come out perfectly the very first time.
The tips are simple but important, and while some more seasoned bakers already know them, I want to give everyone an even playing field.
Tips for Making Homemade Biscuits
- The butter and milk for this recipe need to be as cold as possible for fluffy and soft biscuits. I freeze my butter before using it and recommend keeping the milk in the refrigerator right up until it’s time to add it to the dry ingredients.
- Don’t overwork the dough! Keep in mind that you want your butter to stay as cold as possible when making these biscuits, and the more you have your hands on the dough the softer the butter will become. Definitely don’t use an electric mixer for this recipe.
- We’re going to do a little bit of laminating. This means folding the dough over itself multiple times (5-6 times here) to encourage flaky layers in our biscuits. You can watch the video below to see exactly how this is done.
- Don’t use a rolling pin, use your hands to gently work the dough into a flat rectangle before cutting out your biscuits.
- Don’t be afraid to add flour to the dough if it’s too sticky while you are handling it (and make sure to work on a lightly floured surface).
Visual clue: If you look at the pre-baked biscuit below, you’ll see that you can actually see the butter pieces in the dough. This is what you want, the ingredients won’t be well-combined like with a cookie dough and seeing bits of butter means you’ve actually done everything right here. Hooray!
A Few Notes on Butter in Homemade Biscuits
The butter is possibly the most important part of this recipe, and the way you handle it can make or break your homemade biscuits.
While you can certainly use a pastry cutter to cut your butter into the dry ingredients, I recommend freezing your butter for about 30 minutes before beginning. Then, use a box grater to grate the butter before combining this in with your dry ingredients.
I use this technique in my scone recipes and highly recommend it with these biscuits, too. Not only is it much easier than using a pastry cutter, but it does a great job of finely shredding and distributing the butter throughout the mixture without overworking the butter (remember, you want to manage the butter as little as possible so that it’s as cold as possible when going into the oven).
Alternatively you could also use a food processor (like I do with my pie crust recipe), but it’s just so easy to grate in the butter that I always use this method instead.
And yes, I do recommend using unsalted butter in this recipe and then adding salt. If you want to know more about why I write my recipes this way, you can read all about it (and an easy substitution if you only have salted butter on hand) in this post that I wrote about salted vs unsalted butter.
I know I’ve mentioned to you guys a few times that I’ve been working on a baking contest/challenge/I’m really not sure what to call it, but I’m planning a post where I encourage all of you to bake along with me. The goal is to get people baking recipes they may have not tried before, and I’m encouraging everyone to share their results for a chance to win a small prize.
Well, today’s homemade biscuit recipe is essentially the base for the baking challenge that I’ll be sharing in exactly one week, so take this as a hint that making today’s recipe is a great way to get a jump start for the challenge!
To make sure you’re among the first to be notified of all new recipes and baking challenges, make sure you’re subscribed to my e-mail list. It’s free, and you get a free e-book of 8 of my favorite cookie recipes.
Enjoy!
How to Make Homemade Biscuits
I know I talked a lot in this video, but I really feel that the tips are so important, and will help ensure your biscuits come out perfectly!
Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter very cold (85g), unsalted European butter is ideal, but not required
- ¾ cup whole milk¹ (177ml) buttermilk or 2% milk will also work
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- For best results, chill your butter in the freezer for 10-20 minutes before beginning this recipe. It's ideal that the butter is very cold for light, flaky, buttery biscuits.
- Preheat oven to 425F and line a cookie sheet with nonstick parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt
- Remove your butter from the refrigerator and either cut it into your flour mixture using a pastry cutter or (preferred) use a box grater to shred the butter into small pieces and then add to the flour mixture and stir.6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- Cut the butter or combine the grated butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add milk, use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir until combined (don't over-work the dough).¾ cup whole milk¹
- Transfer your biscuit dough to a well-floured surface and use your hands to gently work the dough together. If the dough is too sticky, add flour until it is manageable.
- Once the dough is cohesive, fold in half over itself and use your hands to gently flatten layers together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold in half again, repeating this step 5-6 times but taking care to not overwork the dough.
- Use your hands (do not use a rolling pin) to flatten the dough to 1" thick and lightly dust a 2 ¾" round biscuit cutter with flour.
- Making close cuts, press the biscuit cutter straight down into the dough and drop the biscuit onto your prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat until you have gotten as many biscuits as possible and place less than ½" apart on baking sheet.
- Once you have gotten as many biscuits as possible out of the dough, gently re-work the dough to get out another biscuit or two until you have at least 6 biscuits.
- Bake on 425F for 12 minutes or until tops are beginning to just turn lightly golden brown.
- If desired, brush with melted salted butter immediately after removing from oven. Serve warm and enjoy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Penny likes to supervise the photography process. Fortunately, this setup got her vote of approval.
Kayley Enlow
These are fantastic! I had zero problems, they taste great and they are so easy to make!
Lorena
I did do a small switch, I used 1 cup of all purpose and 1 cup of cake flour. They are amazing!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Lorena! 🙂
Robin Zimmerman
Sorry I could could not figure out hoe to post a question. I do not have unsalted butter. What will happen if I use salted butter and just adjust the salt I put in it??
Sam
Hi Robin! The salted butter with a reduction in salt will work fine. 🙂
Regene
My biscuits did not rise. They taste great, and flaky.
Sam
Hi Regene! I would check that your baking powder is still good, and it might be helpful to take a peek at the how-to video as well 🙂
Buddy
Can you pre make biscuits and freeze separately
Sam
That will work just fine. 🙂
grace
First time trying this recipe and it came out with a super rise and delicious buttery taste! I have tried many recipes but this one is now my new favorite. I did not stray from the recipe. There’s no need to make an exceptions!
Marc P
Never made homemade biscuits that ever turned out right until this recipe with these tips. Now people think I’ve been making biscuits all my life. Awesome! Thank you.
M
I cheated and used a food processor. They are super easy and delicious. I made another batch with cheese. Thank you!
Quick question, how far out can I make the dough before baking?
HAPPY BAKING!
Sam
They will be ok in the refrigerator in an air tight container for a couple of days, or you could freeze the biscuits. 🙂
Defimgo to biscuit recipe
Just made these biscuits with my 6 year old granddaughter, they came out perfect and delicious! Thanks for all the tips especially grating the butter. We tried them with butter and three different jams, raspberry, strawberry, and homemade lemon jam. My granddaughter wanted to make another batch right after we made these😊. Definitely will be my go to biscuit recipe! Barbara
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Barbara! 🙂
Rick Terry
59 years old and made my first pan of great biscuits. So thankful for this easy recipe. I accidentally used 2-3/4 cups of buttermilk instead of one and they were great still. Thanks a bushel Rick
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Rick! 🙂
Liz
These are the best biscuits I’ve ever made! I don’t have a box grater, so I pulsed my frozen butter in the food processor and added it to the flour before adding the milk (as opposed to adding the flour to my processor bowl, like I do for pie crust). I used these to top a chicken pot pie and they puffed up and browned perfectly. Can’t wait for my leftovers at lunch today 🙂
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Liz! 🙂
Khalilah
Great biscuits! Quick, easy and delicious! I think i’ve found my go-to biscuit recipe. Yummy!
Raquel
I love this recipe!! The biscuits come out perfectly everytime thanks to all the extra tips!!
I was just wondering if these could be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated to bake the next day? Maybe even frozen? I was just curious if anyone had tried it yet.
Sam
Hi Raquel! These are great for keeping until the next day and baking. I know several people have frozen them with success as well. I would cut the biscuits out before refrigerating or freezing. 🙂
Terriesha
Taste great my 3rd time making them
Deebee
Thank you so much for the in depth tricks. Laminating, freezing and shredding the butter, and careful attention to salt. Who’d have thunk! I used to make biscuits the way mom did, throw everything mindlessly in a bowl and cut it all up, hoping for the best. This entire recipe feels like an exact science, pure chemistry.
I have made these biscuits ten times now, and they are professional quality each time.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Norman
Still terrific biscuits and I make these often. I have recently started a different step which is once I do my first cutting of the biscuits I don’t rework the remaining pieces to make another biscuit or two. Instead I gather the remants and add brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins maybe a teaspoon of milk to help the remix process. Cut and bake these with the biscuits as they cook in the same time. Once done they get brushed with butter and then dizzled with my two ingredient icing which is a cup of powdered sugar with a couple spoons of any white coffee creamer such as sweet italian cream or french vanilla stirred in until it’s a thick paste.
Sam
That sounds super tasty! I’m so glad you enjoy them so much, Norman! 🙂